Girl survives 228 days with artificial heart

Six-year-old Alice Hipkiss is now a picture of health but she has lived for
for more than seven months with an artificial heart pumping blood around her
body to keep her alive.

It was originally feared that Alice, who had been ill almost since birth, was too weak to have the heart implanted but her parents Liz and David, Hipkiss, of Yarnton in Oxfordshire, refused to give up on her. Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY

She lived with the device, called a Berlin Heart, for 228 days - longer than anyone else in Britain.

Alice had been ill almost since birth.The left side of her heart did not work properly, meaning she would eventually need a transplant.

It was thought, however, that she would be too weak to have articial heart device fitted. But her parents Liz and David, Hipkiss, of Yarnton in Oxfordshire, refused to give up on her.

The machine was eventually fitted, to keep her alive by taking up the work of her dangerously weakened heart, while she grew strong enough to have a full heart transplant.

Shortly after the transplant at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in central London, she suffered another setback when she developed cancer due to the strong drugs she was taking. But she beat the cancer and is now enjoying a normal life.

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"I pinch myself every day. We have been through high and lows and we have come through," he said.

They are eternally grateful to the family who allowed their child's heart to be donated.

Mr Hipkiss, who is chief executive of a pharmceutical technology company in Oxford, said: "We wouldn't be here without the wonderful gift of a family who we will never know. We think about them every day“, he said.

Alice has an older sister Polly, eight and a younger sister, Anna, who is four and a brother, William two.

The family are helping to raise £500,000 for a new Heart and Lung Centre at the hospital.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity is the official charity of the Formula 1 Santander British Grand Prix and the family are special guests at the race on Sunday.